Seed Wars = Knowledge Wars = GMOs
Do not be fooled by all of the slick ads and expert shills propaganda – remember to vote YES on CA PROP 37 this Tuesday 11/6! As Michael Spector writes in yesterday’s New Yorker:
On Tuesday the residents of California will vote on whether to become the first state in the nation to require labels to appear on foods that contain genetically engineered products. The proposition would also make it illegal to label any engineered or processed foods as “natural.” (For a moment, let’s put aside the fact that no meaningful definition of “natural” food exists.) The result, particularly if Proposition 37 passes, will set a precedent likely to shape the debate in other states—and in Washington, D.C.
Consumers deserve the right to know what’s in their food—and obviously most people want that choice. It’s hard to see how more knowledge about the products we eat every day can hurt us. But facts, particularly facts about science, are not what this proposition is about. The rancorous tone of the debate and the money wasted on propaganda—most of it spent by big agricultural companies in an effort to defeat the proposition—have been remarkable.
Genetically engineered seeds and crops (GMOs) = seed wars = knowledge wars.
The only reason crops have been genetically engineered is to take patents on seeds , and collect royalties.If during colonialism the concept of Terra Nullius, empty land, allowed the take over of land and territories by the colonizer, a new concept of Bio Nullius, or “empty life,” is being used to claim “intellectual property rights” on seeds , biodiversity and lifeforms.
“But life is not empty. Seeds are not an invention. They embody millions of years of biological evolution , and thousands of years of cultural evolution and farmers breeding. When corporations claim patents, they basically “pirate” traits that nature and farmers have evolved. They pirate and patent the aroma of basmati, the low gluten qualities of our native wheat, the salt tolerant, drought tolerant, flood tolerant traits of climate resilience our farmers have bred. This is, not innovation and invention, it is Biopiracy. The only traits that the corporations have introduced into plants through genetic engineering are the toxic traits of Bt toxin and herbicide resistance. Besides being toxic, these traits have not reduced chemical use as has been repeatedly claimed. Our studies in Vidharba show a 13 fold increase in pesticide use since Bt cotton was introduced.” – Dr. Vandana Shiva
A recent report, published in the journal Environmental Sciences Europe, shows that genetically engineered crops have led to a 404 million pound increase in overall pesticide use from the time they were introduced in 1996 through 2011. This equates to an increase of about seven percent over the last 16 years.
The data on increased chemical use shows that the claim that Bt toxin crops will reduce pesticide use and herbicide resistant crops will reduce herbicide use, is false.
As the Navdanya report, “The GMO Emperor has no Clothes” (PDF) shows,genetically modified crops have led to resistance, both in weeds and pests, demanding higher use of pesticides and herbicides. More than two dozen weed species are now resistant to glyphosate, the primary ingredient in Monsanto’s broad-spectrum herbicide Roundup and farmers are being asked to spray Agent Orange, that was used in the Vietnam war.
The only way corporations can push GMO seeds on farmers is by destroying alternatives.
>> Continue reading at Truth-Out.org
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Lynnea Bylund is managing director of Gandhi Legacy Tours, Director of Gandhi Worldwide Education Institute, founder of Catalyst House and has nearly three decades of experience in administration, marketing and business development. She was a nationally recognized spokeswoman for the emerging alternative video and information delivery industries. She has a degree in holistic health-nutrition from the legendary and controversial health educator and activist Dr. Kurt Donsbach, she is the founder of two not-for-profit small business-based wireless trade associations and has lobbied on Capitol Hill and at the FCC where she has spoken out strongly against the cable TV monopoly, illegal spectrum warehousing and ill-conceived congressional schemes to auction our nation’s precious airwaves to the highest bidder.
Ms. Bylund is a founder and former CEO of a Washington DC telecommunications consulting and management company with holdings in several operating and developmental wireless communications systems and companies. In 1995 Lynnea became the first female in the world to be awarded a Broadband PCS operating permit – she was one of only 18 winners, along with Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon in the biggest cash auction in world history, raising a whopping $7.7 billion. Lynnea also spear-headed the successful effort to launch the first cable TV network in the South Pacific islands.
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